


Manual Labor

by theGirlwithtoomanyOTPs



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Age of Ultron, Other, crack-ish i guess, lawn maintenance scene, shoutout to those people who have to work for inconsiderate people everyday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-05
Updated: 2016-01-05
Packaged: 2018-05-12 00:29:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5647306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theGirlwithtoomanyOTPs/pseuds/theGirlwithtoomanyOTPs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I'm not sure if anyone's written about it before but hey, plotbunny. First time ever wrote something about the Avengers too so, pardon the dreariness of it all. I just had to get it out of my head.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Manual Labor

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sure if anyone's written about it before but hey, plotbunny. First time ever wrote something about the Avengers too so, pardon the dreariness of it all. I just had to get it out of my head.

He wasn't really anything special to the esteemed/not-so-esteemed secret/not-so-secret group. He was just part of the Facilities Supervisors Department. To heck with that, he was just part of the cleaning crew. Trained in combat, sure. He was a black belt in Judo and trained in handling almost any weapon known to mankind but still just part of the cleaning crew. But he was in the middle of everything and, admit it or not, sometimes knew just as much as every higher up there was. He had some pretty good ears. But he wasn't a spy or anything. He loved his country. But he loved this world more. So even if it meant scrubbing toilets for the guys who saved the world, he was only more than happy to help.

John Smith was not sure if he preferred the old SHIELD HQ, the Helicarrier, the Avengers building or this new Avengers facility. All of them were huge and huge meant more work. More nooks and crannies to clean and-slash-or maintain.

But of course with SHIELD being disbanded (or whatever you would call it) and then that attack on Stark tower and all the general clean up, construction, moving (and repeating that cycle at least three or four times in his time spent working for Fury and-slash-or Tony Stark and-slash-or the Avengers), John remembers why he hated helping save the world.

The clean up was always hard. (Not everyone can lift tons of rubble with their bare hands. Not everyone can have their hands on good equipment neither.)

Construction is a pain in the butt. (Literally.)

Moving is annoying. (Not just every stuff salvageable from broken building to new building, but having to either choose from either working away from his family or moving them was always head splitting work.)

But the worst to all of that was reassignment.

He'd typically gone through the ranks. everyone does that. Equality, fairness, et cetera, et cetera. Mopping floors. Scrubbing restrooms. Trash duty. Laundry duty. Facilities Monitoring and maintenance. Polishing windows. (Gotta keep those mirror shiny for heroes to look at their reflections or the dramatic view stares. That was hard stuff. Everyone wanted their building made of glass nowadays. And because of security and safety measures, they do those stuff at night.) General maintenance.

But his latest reassignment brought him to something nobody had problems with before.

Past HQs were all concrete, metal and glass. This time around, Tony Stark donated his father's old storage warehouse in the middle of... well, somewhere. And it was in the middle of all this... _green_. Never before had it happened. And since he was one of the seniors in their department, he was assigned with a team to deal with it. Any day he would be happy with the promotion. But what the hell does he know about friggin' _plants_?

He was given exactly 48 hours to research everything and order everything they need. apparently, no one knew how to work with any other living organisms. He was just lucky his ten year old had a green thumb. She was thrilled to help. She loved the Black Widow and shared his love for service above duty. _(i.e., scrubbing toilets for the superheroes)_

With what information he managed to cram into his head on those short forty eight hours (who knew how many types of fertilizers existed for all sorts of plants? John sure as hell didn't), he set out to train his team the best way there is. By actual work.

For almost a month, they spent their days moving, pruning, fertilizing, cutting down and keeping every blade of grass, leaf, bush and hedge was on crisp chape. then they helped set up the security systems, sensors and cameras and wires. It was hard work. And he was proud of what they accomplished with little knowledge and manpower to begin with.

John spent the next remaining days helping out with their department that had a shorter number of people. He sent most of his people with the transport team to help with the moving and he chose maintenance for the day. He needed to get a lay about of the place anyway. He wasn't so good with new places. It takes time getting used to. He'd been there for a little over two months now but of course he was _outside_. His boss told him to go nuts.

He was fixing one of the elevation platforms when Tony Stark, captain America himself and Thor were walking past.

Thor was saying,"... these days, safe is in short supply. "

"But if you put the hammer in an elevator..." Captain America thoughtfully mumbled.

"It would still go up." Tony finished.

John's brows went up but he shook his head anyway.

"Elevator's not worthy," Rogers mutters with a slight shrug."

"I'm going to miss these little talks of ours." Thor says with a hint of a chuckle.

Maybe he could get a picture later for his daughter after his break, he thought.

So John went back to the problem. It was just a few loose screws. Sloppy work. He would have to report that. Man, good help was hard to find these days.

After a few moments, something nagged at the back of John's head. Maybe it was the thought of her daughter wanting a photo of her heroes, or Thor's mention of talks, but John easily figured it out.

**THOR WAS ABOUT TO LEAVE. ******

Everyone in the business knew what that meant.

John took off running.

"Excuse me! Excuse me! Coming through!" He yelled as everyone leapt out of his way.

Only one casualty happened on his hurrying to the way to the back building's entrance. A poor soul picking up papers that had scattered previously found his papers flying about him for the second time today. He resolved to apologize formally later on.

John was fast. He was a police back then and he made sure there were no potbellies coming his way.

But he was just an ordinary man and his feet were human, clumsy and did run out of fuel.

He wasn't going to make it. He was panting by the time the windows were in sight.

And by then, a shot of bright, colorful and telltale light had disappeared as quick as it came.

He grasped the railings in time to hear Tony Stark talk.

"That man has no regard whatsoever for lawn maintenance." Tony Stark said in a way that it felt like a crime.

John paid no more attention to the two men and just groaned as he stared at the burnt circle of a giant symbol saying that Thor had returned to Asgard.

John stared at the burnt circle with a straight face and planned to order some lawn spray paints by the barrel.

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to include the effects of Thor's transportation method on the grass and how hard it will be to make them grow again but I got too lazy :P


End file.
